Apple Appoints Bob Mansfield to Oversee Electric Vehicle Team

Apple has appointed former longtime executive Bob Mansfield, who last served as Senior Vice President of Technologies at the company, to oversee development of its widely rumored electric vehicle, according to The Wall Street Journal. All senior managers on the project now report to him.

Until recently, Mr. Mansfield—who, along with design chief Jony Ive, was one of the few executives to appear in Apple’s carefully-crafted product announcement videos—had all but retreated from the company aside from the occasional visit, these people said. Earlier this month, employees at Apple noticed in the company directory that all the senior managers on the car project were now reporting to Mr. Mansfield, they said.

Apple has reportedly recruited hundreds of engineers from the likes of Tesla, Ford, GM, and elsewhere to work on the so-called Apple Car, codenamed "Project Titan" internally. The electric vehicle could be street-ready between 2019 and 2021 according to various reports, with R&D based in Sunnyvale, California. Many question marks remain about the extent of the vehicle's design, autonomous capabilities, and other features.

Mansfield joined Apple in 1999 and has been instrumental in the company's recent success, overseeing the development of past MacBook Air, iPhone, and iPad designs. Under the Special Projects team, he also played a role behind the Apple Watch. His decision to remain at Apple in 2012 was influenced by both a generous compensation package and former iOS chief Scott Forstall's departure.

Mansfield is highly-regarded and many at Apple believe that if anyone can help bring the car to market, it's him. https://t.co/PMNQqmhsPY

Project Titan as a whole was previously under Dan Riccio, Senior Vice President of Hardware Engineering, according to Rene Ritchie. Steve Zadesky, who held a senior role at Apple related to the electric vehicle project since 2014, left the company earlier this year for personal reasons. Zadesky reported to Riccio until his departure, as the leader of one of multiple teams working on the electric vehicle.

I'm starting to wonder if this really isn't about Apple making a car per se, but making the electronics for cars. It has never made sense to me why Apple would want to but heads with Tesla, BMW, GM, Toyota, Honda, Audi, etc. But most of these companies do outsource their electronics to some degree. None of them make their own hardware for sure. It would make sense if Apple was just figuring out how to make cars a better, safer user experience and then sell that to car maker.

It would also make sense that CarPlay is just the trojan horse to get Apple into main carmaker's products. Bigger things later.

To me, the actual prospect of an electric vehicle from Apple is the least interesting thing about this project. Where it really shines is the potential for advancement in regards to all the technology and infrastructure surrounding the vehicle. Batteries. Chargers. Networks. Autonomy. Even if the vehicle itself is an abject failure in the first generation, what stems from it might be pivotal in the creation or betterment of other industries.

Plus, Apple, having a relatively strong foothold where the government is concerned, stands to further push legislation that would help to lead us into a more "futuristic" age. It's a slippery slope to be sure, but...

to oversee development of its widely rumored electric vehicle, according to The Wall Street Journal ('http://www.wsj.com/articles/apple-taps-bob-mansfield-to-oversee-car-project-1469458580').
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Steve Zadesky, who reportedly previously led Apple's electric vehicle team, left the company earlier this year. ..

Indicative that this was turning into a black hole money pit. Apple making a car is a flawed idea. Apple has billions to burn so it won't necessarily kill the company but not sure how going to be in car business and actually don't make cars. There is a significant difference in constructing prototype , cruise around Sunnyvale/Mtn View cars under mostly ideal conditions and doing real car that can deal with real roads.

HR development wise also not particularly good have to dip into the retirement pool to get a top flight engineering manager to run something. Starved out Mac product (and non iOS) R&D probably isn't helping on that front.

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